Managing Your Health

If and when managing your or someone else’s health challenges becomes a major concern, there are tools not previously available that can make the process easier.

Telehealth, electronic health records and email can help.

Millions of people either live too far from their doctor’s clinic, or are too feeble to travel, or both.

Telehealth is a vital tool for these patients. Why it has been politically controversial escapes me, but currently Medicare pays for telehealth appointments, which is a very good thing.

Electronic health records have been around for a while, but now they are ubiquitous and available to patients through online platforms like MyHealth.

There, your doctor or nurse practitioner can share his or her instructions with you in written form, in case you have trouble remembering what they said in your appointment — which is a common concern, especially among elderly patients.

But by far the most useful communication system for managing your health is when it is two-way. Increasingly, health providers are accepting emails from patients, answering them and initiating an open communication channel that makes the patient less dependent on waiting for that next appointment.

These changes are not only good, but long overdue. The results should include better outcomes for everyone involved.

HEADLINES:

• After Xi’s Warning on Taiwan, He and Trump Strike Positive Tone (NYT)

• Trump Arrives in China Against Backdrop of Unresolved Iran War (WSJ)

• Gunfire chaos as Philippine senator resists ICC arrest (BBC)

• Trump faces slew of ‘bad options’ on Iran as diplomacy falters (Al Jazeera)

• Chinese Firms Plot Secret Arms Sales to Iran, U.S. Officials Say (NYT)

• How the world has avoided an oil catastrophe so far (Economist)

• FDA chief’s resignation widens a leadership gap at the nation’s health department (AP)

• Van Hollen posts alcohol use test results after challenging Patel to take survey (The Hill)

• It may be time to worry like it’s 1999 (CNN)

• Republicans won the redistricting war but may still lose the US House (Reuters)

• How voters can fight gerrymandering in an era of remapping wars (The Hill)

• Supreme Court faces new criticism for redistricting decisions so close to the 2026 elections (NBC)

• ProPublica to Launch Investigative Reporting Hub in California (ProPublica)

• Nonprofits say they are in a crisis (Axios)

• Why the U.S. job market is so hard, especially for recent college graduates (WP)

• In San Francisco, the Tents of Homeless People Are Disappearing (NYT)

• Climate Change Is Creating a New Kind of Weather Disaster (Gizmodo)

• Court overturns Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions and orders new trial (CNN)

• Ask your landlord to lower your rent — now (BI)

• Why A.I. is the Hidden Minefield of Trump’s China Visit (NYT)

• Depraved Inbred Community Distances Itself From Prince Andrew (Onion)